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Travel Blues

The Bridge of Americas from a distance from the Pacific Ocean

I'm really homesick lately, well you must be asking why? I wouldn't necessarily be calling it your traditional homesick of missing the place you call home and your family, but for me it's missing the things that I'm most at home with, traveling and letting the adventure unfold. Kinda like that good adventure you have read about in Kerouac's "On the Road" or Steinback's "Travel with Charlie" that speaks to your heart that is calling you to go out and do. I've been getting sad reading all those Lonely Planet and National Geographic newsletters in my "in box" in my email not to mention flipping threw the channels on the telly stumbling upon Blue Planet either or seeing other's travel photos and hearing their stories.

View of Panama City with an oil tanker

Last year at this time I was sailing on the National Geographic Sea Lion to Latin America (Lindblad Expeditions). Oh, those times realy do put a smile on my face for a number of reasons. Something about being on deck smelling the ocean and feeling the wind come threw you as the boat sail amongst the waves. Watching dolphins while looking down from the bow was pretty amazing. At night I enjoyed watching the bioluminescent plankton. Also, being at home with your boat family. I quite enjoyed having a chef's knife in my hand and got to get my culinary groove on too. I realized how polluted the ocean is with all the plastic floating around. It's like "hello world can you please take care of yourself before it's too late?" Do we really need another "plastic island" floating around and calling it a new continent? I don't think so. Our environment is already in danger, please take care of it.

Going threw one of the 3 locks of the Panama Canal

As for me one of the biggest highlights was to sail threw the Panama Canal. I have to admit that I'm the second person in my family having done so. I'm the granddaughter of a sea captain. So I got my quest for adventure and my "sea legs" from my material grandfather who would always share his travel stories with me growing up. The seed got planted at an early age for me and it's just blossoming. I'm very grateful to have had the pleasure of sailing threw the canal. It was pretty amazing to go threw the Bridge of the Americas and to see the working locks and hear the history of the place. Funny, how Panama is only one of the few countries that used the American Dollar as its official currency. I don't recommend getting lost in Colon cos it has a very bad reputation. Just use caution. I also found the duty free prices to be not as good as they were crack up to be considering it's one of the world's biggest ports. Amazon some times is your best bet. It's def an amazing place to go explore for sure. I def had a good time in Panama.